2025 June 17th, Day 80. To The Skerries.

The models from the morning download showed the southerly F5 moderating and veering to the W or NW with favourable winds from Dundalk Bay southward by mid afternoon and overnight, mainly W or NW F3-4 and adverse or no wind for sometime after. The Met Éirenn and UK 07:00 forecasts did not agree on the detail but both ended up with the same result for the 19th.

The high pressure area would generate slack or southerly winds
for some days. The models predicting winds to be quite brisk
at times.

I therefore decided to leave late afternoon or evening and if necessary sail over night to position my self at The Skerries keeping my options open, the factors influencing this decision, including the weather, will be covered in the next post.

However by late morning the Predictwind observations were showing the wind was already veering at Dundalk and further south, also the sea didn't look too bad so I decided to leave early trading some bumpy motoring for a few hours for a nights sleep and I slipped at 12:05.

Seas were indeed bumpy but not as bad as my arrival and I was making 5 - 5.5 knots albeit with engine power that would normally produce 6 knots or a bit more.

For the first time on this trip a (large) pod of dolphins played around the boat staying close for 3/4 of an hour. Three juveniles announced themselves by doing synchronised belly flops just off the port quarter sending spray into the cockpit, as they were perfectly capable of making a clean entry there must have been some meaning to this. I was treated to a spectacular display with many coming clear of the water, one at least 12-15ft clear, others surfing or jumping waves, but it was too rough for extensive filming and I only caught the above in a calm spell.

52 miles in a under 10 hours. Note all of
the anchorages within a short distance.

And I waited for the wind to veer. And I waited and I waited, whilst the the school hosted met stations and others at Dundalk and further south were showing westerly winds.

Eventually it veered from S to W in 10 minutes and NW not long afterwards. The problem was it didn't happen until eight o'clock in the evening and it it did not reach 8 knots for another half hour by which time I was nearly there and it was not worth putting any sail up before I anchored at 21:42. 

The cold front had stalled and the line of favourable wind was always 5 - 10 miles to the west of me.

But I was now in the optimal position to make a decision on what to so next, and in one of the very few anchorages on this bit of coast safe from southerly winds, within easy motoring of 3 marinas and some more anchorages in the Dublin area all of which would allow me to easily reach Anglesey in a a south or south-westerly wind.

It should also be reasonably warm from Thursday but in the 70's no heat wave here. As it turned out the westerly then N. Westerly wind petered out and judging by how the boat moved overnight and some nasty rolling from the left over sea there was not a sailing wind all night so it was the right decision to leave early.

Click here for next steps.